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THE
S€EME
From Astronomy . . . A new pinprick
of light broke out of obscurity and
through the night sky last July, be­came
visible to the naked eye in Au­gust
and has stayed conveniently
bright in the following months for any­one
who cared to look at it.
Among those who care most is A.
Thomas Murphy, San Francisco office
partner, member of the California Bar,
amateur astronomer and member of
the prestigious American Association
of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).
What Mr. Murphy has been watch­ing
is Nova Delphini 1967, a "new"
star discovered July 8 in the constella­tion
Delphinius (the dolphin). His in­terest
in the nova, a kind of star that is
not really newborn but suddenly bursts
into visibility, is part of a larger enthu­siasm
dating from 1936, the year he
joined AAVSO. That is a worldwide
organization of amateur astronomers
who obtain regular information on the
thousands of stars whose brightness
fluctuates. The relatively few profes­sional
observatories could not possibly
watch all the variables all the time.
Mr. Murphy contributes to this con­stant
watch by numerous amateurs
through observations made from his
yard in a wooded area of suburban
Atherton. "There," he said with the
casual possessiveness of an inner circle
member, "three-quarters of my sky is
reasonably dark."
In Atherton there are no mercury
vapor lamps, the bane of urban star-gazers,
and no smog to speak of, Mr.
Murphy added.
With the aid of two telescopes on
tripods (a six-inch reflector and three-inch
refractor) and a pair of 7 x 50
binoculars, Mr. Murphy sets up his
equipment in his yard on clear nights,
observes the stars assigned to him by
the association, reckons their magni­tude
(brightness) by using comparison
stars, marks his report forms for month­ly
filing, and when he has time points
his telescopes to other variables, such
as Nova Delphini 1967.
Novae in general have been called
the most thrilling phenomenon that
takes place in the heavens and this one
in particular has been easy to observe.
"In the last few months I've been
quite active in observing," Mr. Murphy
said with an enthusiasm that even the
impersonality of a telephone interview
could not hide.
Asked why people look at stars, Mr.
Murphy referred to a Wall Street Jour­nal
article in the fall reporting that
astronomy as a hobby was luring thou­sands
of adherents who were flocking
to observatories and planetariums, fill­ing
adult education courses in astron­omy
and generally responding to the
space age opened by Sputnik in 1957.
The WSJ article ended by saying
that widespread interest in all the
physical sciences has risen "but astron­omy
has grown so much faster because
it has a natural appeal to man's inquisi­tive
intellect."
There is room for considerable in­quiry.
Even with the huge advances
made in astronomy in the past 90 years,
relatively little is known about the
causes of variability in stars. Scientists
can guess but cannot yet prove their
hypothesis that some stars are hidden
by meteors or clouds, that some actu­ally
swell and shrink because of gases.
"In short," writes one astronomical
observer, "the variables have stimu­lated
the imagination of scientists like
nothing else in the heavens."
As for why he observes stars, Mr.
Murphy explained that for one thing
he had always been interested in
physics; and "physics," wrote the Ger­man
scientist Rudolph Thiel, "is the
daughter science of astronomy."
For another, Mr. Murphy said, he
likes to get away from the confines of
his office and close-range work by go­ing
into the cold night air and looking
across great distances.
"And then," he finally acknowledged
almost as if it were unscientific of him,
"the stars are quite beautiful."
. . . to Astrology. Substituting a horo­scope
for a telescope, Sybil Schmille,
secretary for Executive Office partner
Emmett Harrington, also studies the
stars. "I've been fascinated by astrol­ogy
since I was 8 years old," she remi­nisces.
"My father's cigar-maker, who
had studied astrology at Heidelberg,
would visit us evenings and the con­versation
would invariably revolve
around the planets and their influ­ences.
I was an eager audience."
It wasn't until later, however, that
Sybil's childhood interest became ac­tive.
She began a serious study of the
modern, or psychological, approach to
astrology and along with the theory
went the practice. With an enthusiasm
for her subject, Sybil has charted natal
(birth) horoscopes for herself and her
friends and she even charts the people
whose biographies she enjoys reading.
"It's Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia
this week," she says.
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